iPhone X: Hands on with ‘the future of the smartphone’

Apple had high expectations to fulfil ahead of the launch of the iPhone X, and one thing’s for certain: it didn’t back away from them. Tim Cook called it the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone, and nothing less than “the future of the smartphone”.

It’s a bold statement, but one Apple had to make. Samsung’s Galaxy S8, released earlier this year, attempted to position the company as the industry's new flag bearer when it comes to design, and though Apple will insist it doesn’t matter what rivals say, it wasn’t going to take that lying down. So the iPhone X (the X is a “ten”, not an “x”) comes with fighting talk.

Apple launch: five things we learned

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What’s new

The iPhone X is pretty much a complete redesign of the iPhone. It ditches the iconic home button in favour of a screen that takes up the entire front of the phone, in the biggest change to Apple's handset to date.

Out goes the Touch ID fingerprint scanner, in comes “Face ID”, an advanced form of facial recognition that uses an overhauled front camera system to wake and unlock the phone when you look at it.

A new “super retina” screen claims more detail and bolder colours, and at 5.8 inches is bigger than even the 5.5 inches on iPhone Plus models.

The new front camera system means there’s a notch at the top of the screen, so if you’re watching a video or zooming in on a photo or playing a game in landscape mode, you don’t get the full rectangular picture. I watched a couple of videos and don’t think the notch is really that irritating, but some people might disagree.

Despite the bigger screen, running it to the edges means the iPhone X itself is fairly pocket sized, closer to holding the regular iPhone 7 or 8 than its plus-sized sibling. The casing is glass, rather than the aluminium of recent iPhones, which allows for wireless charging.

Looks-wise, the iPhone X doesn’t initially strike me as being drop dead gorgeous. It’s actually a little utilitarian – a rectangle with curved edges that is simply dominated by the screen. But that’s kind of the point. Apple design chief Sir Jony Ive says “the device disappears into the experience”, and that is kind of how it feels.

Bye bye home button

The most obvious difference in how you actually use the iPhone X is the absence of the home button, which changes a lot of things about how the phone works.

To wake up the phone, you tap the screen or press the lock button on the right, before unlocking it with Face ID (more on that below). To go to the home screen, you swipe up from the bottom, and to open the control centre, you swipe down from the top right (the top left will open Notification Centre as per usual). Siri is activated by holding the lock button, and Apple Pay loads up if you press it twice. To take a screenshot, it’s now a combination of the lock button and the volume up button, and to turn the phone off, it’s the lock button and volume down. So a lot changes when you get rid of the home button.

I was expecting to find it a bit disorientating, especially having to swipe up to go home, but you actually get used to it very quickly. There are some nice new touches in applying these changes too: swiping left and right along the bottom of the screen lets you flick between apps much more quickly.

Face scanning

Since losing the home button also means losing the fingerprint scanner, the iPhone X needed something else to unlock the phone, approve Apple Pay and so on. Thus Face ID, which uses a combination of sensors and cameras on the front of the phone to map and recognise your face. Apple made a big point of showing how secure this is and how reliable it is – it works even in the dark or if you’re wearing glasses or a hat.

Apple’s demo didn’t exactly go smoothly on stage and in the hands on area it seemed to work most of the time, but not every time. This might just be my experience, or it might be one of the things that needs ironing out before the iPhone X goes on sale in November.

The iPhone X has facial recognition technologyCredit:
Reuters

There’s a lot more Apple has done with the front camera than just Face ID though. The camera system, which Apple calls TrueDepth, recognises when you’re looking at it, so if you’re reading something the screen will stay on. It means portrait mode, which debuted on the iPhone 7 Plus dual camera last year, now works for selfies, which probably means it will get used a lot more. And the face filters on apps like Snapchat look so much better.

Then, of course, there’s Animoji – Apple’s new custom emojis that follow your facial movements, turning you into a frowning poo or screaming unicorn. Animoji are the sort of thing that only Apple can pull off, and trying it out for the first time is genuinely very good fun.

Is it the sort of thing I’m going to use every day? I’m not so sure. But as a demonstration of what the TrueDepth camera’s potential, it does the job.

Can it be worth the money?

The other unmissable thing about the iPhone X is its price tag. At £999 for the 64GB model and £1,149 for the 256GB it is not only significantly more expensive than previous iPhones, but every other phone on the market.